Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology, Costa Rica

The field station has a Program house with a semi-attached faculty dorm, a student dorm, and an ecological center (with a full lab and classroom). These are near the entrance to the property, and low in elevation. There is a rough, but drivable road, up to the top of the property, where a large shade shelter allows for either outdoor classes or just a place to get out of the sun for a bit. A series of trails have also been established that cover the property, and pass through many of the interesting areas. It is worth noting, however, that the property gains 300 meters of elevation to the top, so even with great trails it is best to be somewhat fit to do research here.

The FCRE is a research station, so many scientific projects are in the works, ongoing, or already done. However, a fair number of smaller projects just need done to keep the place maintained, or maybe to upgrade to a drip irrigation system for the plant nursery, or whatever. Things large and small are covered here, even though this is just a tiny bit of what is done at the FCRE.

Frogs of the FCRE

Roughly 34 species of toads and frogs are known from this area. Some are omnipresent, while others have maybe only been found once. This gallery shows off some of the diversity and beauty of these animals, although so far only about half of the known species have been photographed.

A project to document the bats has been ongoing, although slowly, as this is not a project that would be easy for a student to take on (too hard to ID many species without prior experience with bats). However, a fair number of bats have been identified, and as they are some of the animals hardest to see closely, this gallery of bats is well worth a look.

Costa Rica is a biodiversity center, and insects are one of the most diverse groups out there. This gallery is worth the time to check out, as there are some really interesting insects in and around the FCRE.

Spiders are everywhere, but walking down a trail without looking closely will miss most of them. Of course the ones that string webs across trails will get one's attention, but what do these characters actually look like? Also for bonus fun, this gallery also includes other things with 8 legs, such as tail-less whip scorpions, and things with even more legs, like centipedes.

From snakes to caiman to lizards and turtles. There are an abundance of reptiles in the water, on land, and in the trees. There is still a need for a reptile diversity study, so many of the photos will not have specific names.